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On Cranbrook’s economy and roads
By Mayor Wayne Stetski
I am going to start by thanking all those who have put their names forward to run for Mayor or Council in Cranbrook. Democracy is always best served by having choices!
There are two common themes that are part of virtually every candidate’s platform – our roads and our economy. While ‘politicking’ can be entertaining I want to take a minute to ensure that all the candidates and the citizens of Cranbrook have the facts about these two important issues.
Economy
Our economy is diverse which makes us relatively stable compared to many communities in the interior of B.C. Major sectors providing employment include: retail shopping; College of the Rockies and our elementary, middle and secondary schools; East Kootenay Regional Hospital; Elk Valley coal mines; Canfor and Galloway lumber mills; Skookumchuk Pulp Mill; Canadian Rockies International Airport; Canadian Pacific Railway; Highway 3 and the associated 1.3 million vehicles that pass through Cranbrook every year; Governments – federal, provincial and local; small businesses, some of whom sell nation-wide and internationally; tourism; overnight accommodation; outdoor recreation in all its forms…we have been here as a city for 109 years and we will continue to thrive for 100 more!
Our economy is on the upswing and council has been focussed on making it even better. We introduced the Downtown Revitalization Tax Exemption Bylaw, which provides five years of Property Tax Relief for new and renovated buildings in our downtown core. I initiated a joint City/Chamber of Commerce project to reduce Barriers to Business.
For building permits, year to date figures are very positive in every category over 2013:
Residential $6,418,256 43.7%↑
Commercial $5,890,727 60%↑
Industrial $350,000 46%↑
Institutional $15,049,500 15,592%↑
Signs $233,405 145%↑
Total New Construction $27,941,888 226%↑
We have almost 1,400 businesses licensed in Cranbrook. From January 1 to August 31, 98 new businesses were established, a 42% increase over 2013.
Since January 1, every new business gets a letter from me thanking them for their faith in Cranbrook, encouraging them to join the Cranbrook and District Chamber of Commerce and/or the Downtown Business Association, and providing them with a list of resources that could help them with their future, which resulted from a meeting I organized with Cranbrook’s economic practitioners.
One of the metrics used to determine how well the economy is doing is airport passenger usage. Year-to-date traffic is up 10% over 2013 and by the end of the year, use is expected to surpass 123,475 passengers. Our growth is outpacing comparable airports in B.C., including Kamloops and Kelowna.
In terms of real estate in Cranbrook, year to date to September 10, saw sales of 177 single family dwellings for an average sale price of $286,685, with an average of 88 days of marketing time. In 2013, 132 single family homes were sold, so we’re up about 34% over last year. The average sale price of a house has increased 1.45% over 2013.
As I said at the beginning, our economy is heading in the right direction!
There is one more aspect to our economy that I would like to address, and that is that the City of Cranbrook should be giving priority to local business. We do that as much as we can but it is illegal to prevent ‘outsiders’ from bidding on city contracts, due to free trade agreements. In order to help local businesses while not doing anything illegal I asked staff to host a vendor’s workshop on How to Bid on City Contracts. It was a good session and we will do it again in 2015.
Roads
It’s also important to know the facts about our roads.
We invest over $3,000,000 a year into improving our roads and fixing potholes, and each year the first one per cent of any property tax increase goes towards improving our streets.
Our Engineering Department, working with our Environment and Utilities Committee, has produced a 15 year Capital Plan for road repair/replacement. If you want to know when the street you live on or work on is scheduled for replacement we can now tell you that.
If you’re a BC Automobile Association member you will know about their Annual Top 10 Worst Roads in the Province survey. Two pieces of good news:
Cranbrook’s streets were not on this year’s list, and;
The streets that were listed in BCAA’s survey as concerns for Cranbrook largely mirrors the list of streets that the City fixed as a priority in 2014.
There are some who say we should only be repairing the surface of our roads, and in a few areas of Cranbrook this is possible. However, under many of our streets you will find sewer, water and storm drain pipes that are 40 years old and failing (so far in 2013 city staff have had to dig up the asphalt 71 times to repair underground infrastructure). If you fix only the surface and then shortly after a pipe bursts, you have to dig it up and start over. It is difficult to justify to the public why you spent their tax dollars so foolishly. It can cost $500,000 to $600,000 a block to redo streets properly in Cranbrook.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article and get the facts.
Improving the economy and our roads are priorities but there is more to being a responsive and responsible Mayor. I encourage you all to visit my website www.stetski.com and to attend JCI’s Forum for municipal candidates at Key City Theatre from 6 to 10 p.m. on Wednesday, October 29, to learn more about all of the candidates who want to have a role in Cranbrook’s future. Having the facts and being well informed are key to a healthy democracy!
Ed. note: All candidates running for mayor, council, Regional District of East Kootenay Electoral Area director or school board trustee are welcome to submit columns to e-KNOW outlining their platforms, views and reasons why they should be elected Nov. 15. Send your column and a photo (Jpeg) to: [email protected]
